


Mapping It Out

by calculatingthestars



Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: Illustrated, M/M, Minor Angst, Soft boys being soft, hand holding, illustrated drabble, oblivious alex is oblivious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-03-24
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:42:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23234179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calculatingthestars/pseuds/calculatingthestars
Summary: Illustrated fic. Maia has a talk with her big brother; shenanigans ensue.“Are you dating Javi?” Maia asks out of the blue one day. They’re hunched over Alex’s laptop and poring over raw footage from the day, and the question is so strange that Alex doesn’t even register it at first.
Relationships: Javier Fernández/Alex Shibutani
Comments: 26
Kudos: 20





	1. STEP ONE

**Author's Note:**

> This wouldn't leave me alone until I finished it. :O If you'd like to see a higher resolution version of the art, I've included a link to the Tumblr post in the end notes. :)

“Are you dating Javi?” Maia asks out of the blue one day. They’re hunched over Alex’s laptop and poring over raw footage from the day, and the question is so strange that Alex doesn’t even register it at first.

“What?” he says, after a good thirty seconds have passed. He’s sure he must have heard her wrong.

“Javi,” Maia repeats, slower this time. “Are you dating him?”

Alex pauses the footage-- it stops on he and Javi playing video games on Javi’s phone-- and turns to his sister, giving her his full attention. “I’m not dating Javi.”

“Sleeping with him, then,” Maia says, pursing her lips. “Because you know I won’t judge, and I’m kind of hurt that you didn’t tell me, to be honest.”

“I’m not sleeping with Javi!” Alex says loudly, getting up from his chair. “He’s like-- he’s my best friend aside from you, that’s all. He’s funny and easy to talk to, he’s a fantastic skater, a really nice guy--”

“Oh,” Maia interrupts. “So you’re not dating Javi and you’re not sleeping with him, you just really, _really_ want to be.”

Alex splutters, eyes wide, about to go off on another monologue about how Javi is so wonderful, amazing, handsome, but he’s just a friend, really, when Maia grabs his laptop and wrenches it forward.

It’s still paused on the footage from earlier, where Javi had been playing a game on his phone and Alex had been peering over his shoulder to watch.

Or at least he thought he had been.

When Maia shoves the screen towards his face, Alex is forced to actually, _really_ look at the still. Alex had thought they’d just been sitting on the couch together, but he realizes that one of his arms had been wrapped around Javi’s shoulders and his other hand tangled with Javi’s fingers. Alex is also confronted with the fact that he’s not looking at the game at all, but into Javi’s eyes, and that _Javi is looking right back_.

“Do you even remember what game Javi was playing?” Maia asks, and of course the answer is _no_. “You realize that I have like thirty minutes of this crap, right?”

“...” Alex doesn’t say a word, and Maia gives him a _look_.

“That’s what I thought.”

Alex drops into the chair again, stunned. He likes Javi, he’s always liked Javi, and that in and of itself is hardly anything new. But the fact that he _likes_ Javi… The more he thinks about it, the more it makes sense. Alex isn’t really into dudes, (that one time at summer camp doesn’t count), but he can see himself really, really being into Javi.

He looks up, well aware that his face must be a blazing shade of red. “Do you think Javi would date me?” he asks meekly.

Maia rolls her eyes, dropping his phone into his hand. “Yes,” she says. “Now hurry up and _ask_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Full view of the art can be found here:  
> https://calculatingthestars.tumblr.com/post/614498420816838656/alex-x-javi-art-by-calculatingthestars
> 
> Both art and drabble are by the author; please don't repost to other sites without permission.


	2. STEP TWO

Javi says yes, which Alex can’t quite help but crow about.

“We’re going out tonight,” he says to Maia, who doesn’t look up from the magazine she’s reading.

“And where are you taking him?”

“Dinner at the pizza place down the street,” Alex says. “Then I thought maybe bowling?”

Maya puts her magazine down, and the look she gives him is far from impressed. “Seriously?” she asks. “If that’s your idea of a date, then you’ve already been on dozens of dates. Don’t you think that Javi might not understand that it’s a _date_ date if you just do the same old things you’ve always done?”

“I didn’t want to overdo it,” Alex says, biting his lip. “But maybe you have a point.”

“You think?” Maia says.

She gives him another significant look before returning to her magazine, one the says _‘you better not screw this up because it’s being served up to you on a silver platter’_ , and Alex receives the message loud and clear.

Which is why he’s changed into a nice blue button-down and slacks by the time Javi comes back to their room, surprisingly early. They still have a few minutes before they’re supposed to head out; Alex figures it’s a good sign.

“Hey,” he says warmly, when Javi pauses in the doorway.

“I thought you said pizza and bowling?” he asks, glancing down at himself. He’s wearing a soft-looking sweater and jeans. “Should I change?”

“No, you look great,” Alex says, and Javi beams at him. “It’s fine, I just… ran out of clean clothes.”

He gets up and makes sure he’s got everything he needs-- phone, wallet: _check--_ and steps closer to Javi. “I was just thinking that maybe we could go somewhere else,” he says. “Maybe that French place we passed by last week?”

“Sure,” Javi says easily. “But if we’re going there, then I really should change.”

He goes around to his side of the room before Alex can protest, pulling out a beige shirt and some pants. “Give me a sec,” he says, and starts taking off his clothes.

“Sure,” Alex says, turning around so quickly that it very nearly counts as a spin. _Bravo_. He walks backwards until his knees hit the back of his bed and he sits down stiffly, trying not to blush too hard. He suspects that he’s fighting a losing battle.

_What’s the matter with you?_ he thinks fiercely. _You’ve seen Javi half-naked a bunch of times. Stop acting like a dumbass._

But it’s different now, because Alex hadn’t really thought about _looking_ before, and now he really, really wants to.

“Is everything okay?” Javi’s always been a touchy-feely guy, it’s one of the things that Alex loves about him, but this time when he puts a hand on Alec’s shoulder, he nearly jumps a foot in the air.

“It’s fine,” he says, voice abnormally high. He clears his throat, forcing a smile. “Sorry, I was thinking. You startled me, that’s all.”

“Right,” Javi says doubtfully. He’s finished changing and he looks good. _Really_ _good._ “Should we go?”

“Absolutely.” Alex holds the door open for him and Javi gives him an unreadable look before stepping out into the hall.

The next hurdle comes when Javi hits the elevator button for Maia’s floor instead of the ground, and Alex starts to realize that no, he probably hadn’t made his intentions clear enough at all.

“Maia’s not coming,” he explains. “She’s not feeling well.”

“Sorry to hear that,” Javi says. “Maybe we can bring something back for her.”

“Maybe,” Alex echoes. He can already picture her withering stare when she finds out that, despite his nice clothes and the change in venue, she had been right all along. He cringes.

_Or maybe not._

***

They make it to the restaurant with relatively little trouble, and the hostess gives them a nice booth in the corner. The food seems authentic, not that Alex is a particularly good judge of it, but he darts a look at Javi and he looks happy enough with the selection.

“Should we order now?” Javi asks. “Or wait for the others?”

“Others?” Alex echoes.

Javi’s brow creases slightly. “Is anyone else coming?”

Scratch that; Alex is now ninety-nine percent sure that Javi has no idea that this is a date, and that he’s right back to square one. He visibly deflates. “No, I didn’t ask anyone else,” he says. “I thought it would be nice if it was just the two of us.”

“Oh.” Javi blinks, then smiles. “I guess I misunderstood earlier, what you were asking.” He puts a hand on Alex’s forearm and squeezes gently before going back to his menu.

***

The rest of the evening progresses much the same way. Alex vacillates between _date_ and _not date_ all night, catching himself taking Javi’s hand in one minute and then dropping it like a hot potato in another. Javi, for his part, acts like he always does, except Alex is now hyper-aware of every movement and is thus reading too much into _everything_.

Javi offering to share his appetizer? He does that with everyone, therefor: _not date_.

Javi offering Alex a bite _from his fork_? _Date_.

Javi resting his head on Alex’s shoulder after they finish their mains? He’s seen him do that with half the people in the show, so _not necessarily date_.

Except Javi doesn’t move away even after the dessert arrives, not budging an inch to pick up his fork. Alex has seen him demolish a chocolate lava cake in under a minute in the past, so he’s pretty sure that the way Javi is looking at him like he likes him a lot more than cake means _DATE_ in big, bold letters.

There’s a gentle smile playing on his lips and Alex wants nothing more than to kiss him then, but the moment stretches a second too long, _electric_ , until Javi pulls away with a sigh.

“Is everything okay?” he asks. He shifts a bit on the booth so that he’s facing Alex more fully, big brown eyes wider than usual. “You’ve been acting weird all night.”

“Sorry,” Alex says, chagrined. “I guess I’ve been wanting to talk to you about something but I’m kind of embarrassed.”

“Oh,” Javi says. “I also wanted to say something, actually.” He eyes Alex for a moment, but when Alex just looks at him blankly, he sighs.

“How about we just say what we’re both thinking?” he proposes. “Whatever’s on our mind, we just say it, and we both promise not to judge.”

_That doesn’t sound so bad_ , Alex thinks. Like ripping off a bandaid. “Okay, deal.”

There’s a beat as they both give each other a significant look, and then speak at the same time:

“I’m worried that you don’t know that this is our first date,” Alex blurts out.

“I wish you’d just tell me outright if you were ready to start sleeping together,” Javi says, right on top of him.

They both pause, digesting the information, then Javi frowns.

“What?” he asks.

“What?” says Alex, even more confused.

“What do you mean this is our first date?” asks Javi. “Haven’t we been dating for close to a month? _I_ thought you were trying to hint, _badly_ , that you were ready to go further.”

Okay, now Alex is _really_ confused. “Why would you think that we’ve been dating for a month?” he asks, then holds up his hands at the hurt look on Javi’s face. “I’m not saying I haven’t _wanted_ to, but I just-- I didn’t _think_ \--”

And now Javi is giving him an extremely unimpressed look that he probably picked up from Maia. Alex suppresses a shudder.

“Do you remember the welcome party at the start of the tour? You didn’t exactly waste time. First you put your arm around me and said that I was the most important friend you ever had,” he says, starting to tick off points on his fingers. “And then you said that you ‘weren’t really into guys but that I was really special’--”

“I was drinking, I didn’t know what I was saying,” Alex says, and yes, now he can see why Javi might have come to the conclusion that he has.

“You had _two beers,_ Alex,” Javi says. “You said you hoped that we could spend more time together while we still had the chance. And there’s also the fact that we haven’t spent one day apart since then. Yesterday you practically pulled me into your lap!”

Javi frowns, crossing his arms over his chest. “Even Yuzuru noticed, Alex,” he says. “ _Yuzuru_. That man lives and breathes skating and he actually stopped image training long enough to ask me if we were dating.”

“What did you say?” Alex can’t help but ask.

Javi gives him an unbearably flat look and gets up from the table. “I’m going to head back,” he says. “When you figure it out, call me.”

He takes his wallet out and drops a few bills on the table (despite Alex’s protests), and leaves.

The waitress comes by with Maia’s takeout and gives him a sympathetic glance, asking in Japanese if their meal had been to his satisfaction.

“Yeah,” Alex replies morosely in English. “It was great.”

***

Maia is nice enough not to press when he brings her her takeout, even letting him crash on the floor when he confesses that he’s too embarrassed to go back to his room tonight.

“I’m a moron,” he says, burying his face in his hands.

“No, you’re not,” Maia says.

“I was already dating Javi and I didn’t notice,” Alex says. “How could I not have noticed? Everybody else has!”

“You’re not a moron,” Maia says firmly. “You’re just a little clueless, and maybe lack some very common observation skills that even a kid would have--”

“All right, all right, I get it,” Alex says. “I just want to fix it, at this point. I hate the fact that Javi’s angry at me, and I have no one to blame but myself.”

“You think Javi’s mad at you?”

“Well, I mean, he left me at the restaurant,” Alex says. “I don’t think that means he’s happy.”

“Okay, I changed my mind,” Maia says. “You _are_ a moron.”

“Hey,” Alex says, sitting up from the comforter that he’s spread out on the floor. “I thought you were on my side!”

“I _am_ on your side,” Maia says calmly. “Which is why I have to point out that if you think Javi’s angry at you, then you need to rethink whether you know him at all.”

She swings her legs over the side of her bed and fixes him with a level gaze. “He genuinely thought you were dating for like a month, Alex. How you would feel if the situation was reversed?” she asks. “You think that everything’s fine and that you might actually want to take things to the next level, and then Javi comes out and tells you that you’ve been imagining things all along, but hey, the consolation prize is that you want to start dating him _now_.”

“I’d be embarrassed, hurt and confused,” Alex admits. “And I’d want him to talk to me. Like… _really_ talk to me, instead of avoiding me.”

Maia patiently waits for him to get it, and when he does, Alex is up like a shot and out the door.

“Finally!” she exclaims, and flops back down on her bed again.

Sometimes boys can be so _exhausting_.


	3. STEP THREE

Alex lets himself into their room with his keycard, and he’s not at all surprised to find that Javi’s still awake. It’s past midnight and he’s sitting up in his bed with his glasses on, messing around on his phone.

Alex lets the door close softly behind him. “Hey,” he says, and Javi wordlessly puts the device on the night stand.

“I was wondering if you were going to crash with Maia,” he says evenly.

“I was going to,” Alex admits. “And then I realized that that would’ve been a mistake.”

To his credit, Javi doesn’t twist the knife any further, merely shrugs and inclines his head a bit. Alex clears his throat.

“Can we talk?” he asks.

“Okay,” Javi says, looking uncharacteristically uncertain. “I should apologize for taking off at dinner.”

He fidgets with the edge of his blanket, then sighs. “It was just a bit much, you know?”

Alex nods, gingerly taking a seat on the edge of Javi’s bed. “I know,” he says. “And I’m sorry, too. I was stupid for not noticing how close we’d gotten, and even dumber for not just telling you what I wanted after I did. Without the beers, even.”

He gives Javi a crooked little smile, and is immeasurably relieved when Javi’s eyes crinkle at the corners.

“At the party, you told me that you weren’t really into men but that I was special,” Javi says. “I thought that meant you just needed time to get used to being with a guy, so I didn’t press.” His mouth twitches. “Maybe I should have; if I tried to kiss you, maybe you would have figured things out a lot sooner.”

Alex straightens self-consciously. “I’m not into _most_ men,” he says. “But I did kind of have a thing with another guy at a skating camp, years ago. If we were dating...” He clears his throat. “I wouldn’t need time to get used to being with you like that. I--”

_Hell, in for a penny, in for a pound, right?_ “I’m really into you,” he says. “In case that wasn’t clear, yet.”

“Oh?” Javi asks, arching a brow. There’s a challenging glint in his eye now, and he sits up a bit straighter, edging into Alex’s space.

To his credit, Alex doesn’t back off, instead meeting his gaze head-on, even shifts a little closer himself. The moment stretches and stretches until it’s at its final elasticity; they’ve been building up to this for weeks, simmering underneath every interaction.

No wonder Javi had been so confused; Alex running hot and cold would have driven even a saint mad.

“So, Alex,” Javi says, voice low. “Did you figure it out, yet?”

“Dating,” Alex answers immediately. “Definitely dating. Jury’s still out on how long we have been, but...”

He reaches out and cups Javi’s face in one hand, thinks _it’s now or never_ , and leans in to kiss him.

Their mouths meet and Javi’s glasses smush up against the high point of Alex’s cheek, his facial hair prickling against Alex’s chin. The angle is kind of off too, given the way Alex is twisting at the waist on the edge of the bed, but it doesn’t make the contact any less exciting.

Then Javi cups Alex’s cheek in his hand and draws him closer, changing the angle and deepening the kiss, and Alex thinks: _Oh. We should have done this weeks ago_.

Apparently, Javi has the same idea, because it isn’t long before he’s pulled Alex down on top of him and they’re more or less stretched out on the bed, (less, in Alex’s case because his feet are still hanging over the edge), making out like the teenagers they most definitely _aren’t._

At one point, Javi nips at his jaw and Alex responds in kind, sucking a perfect red mark on the side of Javi’s neck as he gasps beneath him.

“Come here,” Javi says, voice rough, and pulls him back up again. Their mouths meet and this time it’s absolutely _perfect_ , Javi’s arms wound tight around his shoulders as they move together, the scrape of stubble against Alex’s chin a long-forgotten concern.

They kiss for what seems like a small eternity, only stopping when the need to breathe becomes an absolute necessity, and Alex pulls back a handful of inches, blinking stupidly.

“Wow,” he says. He looks at Javi in a daze, taking in the way that his glasses are askew and his hair is completely mussed-up. _I totally did that_.

“Yeah,” Javi agrees. He licks his lips and Alex can’t quite help himself from _staring_. They’re very red and kind of swollen; he thinks he may have bitten them at some point. “I, uh, think we should try that again. Just to make sure we got it right.”

He takes off his glasses before pulling Alex down on top of him again, pressed flush against his body, resting between his legs. Alex can feel the warmth of him through the layers of his clothes and Javi’s thin pajamas.

“Okay?” Javi asks softly. He brushes his knuckles against Alex’s chin, nothing but affection in his eyes.

_A hundred thousand okays. +3 GOEs. Gold medals all around._ Alex manages a strangled “ _Very,_ ” before Javi cranes his neck up to kiss him again.

They don’t get around to much more talking after that.

Alex doesn’t mind at all.

***

The following morning finds them both on the ice for group practice, with Maia shooting them looks as she practices choreography on the girls’ side.

Alex grins and gives her a thumbs up as soon as he gets the chance to, and she sends him a smirk back that can only be read as _‘I told you so’_.

When their choreographer tells them all to take five, Javi skates over and grabs his hand, laughing when Alex moves with him, expertly using his momentum to pull him into an embrace.

He gets his arms around Javi’s waist and he’s very aware of the fact that he’s grinning like mad, so happy that he feels like he could burst. “Okay?” he asks, and Javi smiles back, one hand going up to hook against the nape of Alex’s neck.

“Very,” he replies, and Alex leans down to brush his lips against Javi’s, chaste and brief, but incredibly sweet.

“Boo!” Maia shouts, and the smattering of other skaters around them chuckle. None of them look the least bit surprised; Alex suppresses a sigh. _Yup, confirmed: he’s de_ _finitely the last person to know_ _about he and Javi_ _._

“Get a room, lovebirds!” Maia says, waving their video camera in the air, clearly having recorded the whole thing.

Javi makes a face and goes after her, laughing as she darts away, still filming. “I didn’t get the chance to zoom in on the action,” she says. “Do it again!”

Alex shakes his head, still grinning, and then pushes off to catch up to them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's all she wrote! <3 Thank you for reading my fluffy little Alexier. Would love to hear what you think! <3

**Author's Note:**

> Full view of the art can be found here:  
> https://calculatingthestars.tumblr.com/post/614498420816838656/alex-x-javi-art-by-calculatingthestars
> 
> Both art and drabble are by the author; please don't repost to other sites without permission.


End file.
